First ICE Crystal Jewelry Awards Competition Gets Under Way!

New York–It might still be icy cold outside, but this is one ice storm the industry is really looking forward to!

The first-ever ICE Crystal Jewelry Awards–sponsored by Accessories Magazine and Czech crystal company Preciosa–paired 10 talented jewelry design students from FIT with jewelry industry mentors who will help guide their finished sketches.

The idea is to teach the students how to design into a specific trend (each viewed Accessories Magazine’s Fall/Winter 14/15 webinar and selected one of the top five trends) and also how to create salable pieces for a “real” customer.

Later this month, five selected finalists (chosen by a prestigious panel of retailers) will have their pieces manufactured by their mentor companies. All five jewelry ensembles will be displayed at the FABB Ball on May 7th and first and second place winners will be announced at the event.

Meet the Students & Mentors!

Last week, the first group of 3 students met their mentors at FIT and we are proud to announce the teams. The remaining 7 pairs will be featured in the next post.

Above, Gail Freund, Design Director of Robert Rose, meets with FIT student Roselle Raabe to discuss their collaboration. Raabe selected the Gypsy Traveler trend and Freund could not have been happier. “I love her approach and that she used stones, metal and leather but no beads. I can’t wait to bring her to our sample room to show her the chains and castings we have and see how we can take this design further!”

The Gypsy Traveler trends resonated with Raabe because she “strives to be a fearless and spontaneous woman…I like to express myself based on my experiences through my journey.”

Above, Gerard Yosca of his eponymous jewelry company meets with Rose Jane Tan Basa to discuss her initial sketches. Tan Basa, whose parents own a fine jewelry store “back home” in the Philippines, acknowledged her design aesthetic sways toward fine jewelry but she is eager to learn how to translate it into fashion jewelry.

Yosca was “blown away” by her talent and vision for modular, interchangeable jewelry, and can’t wait to work with her to adapt it for the fashion jewelry customer. “I respect her vision and my job is to help her do that!” says Yosca.

Tan Basa is deciding between the Dark Star and Pop Idol trends and is eager to see the vision develop further.

Above, Robin Regnier, VP of Merchandising at NES Costume, a division of The NES Group, meets with Minjin Lee, who also selected the Gypsy Traveler trend. Here, Regnier points out her company’s interpretation of Gypsy Traveler (they named it Folktale) on a trend piece she brought. “I loved that Minjin used touches of fabric in her sketches,” Regnier said, noting the fabric in her own necklace from NES’ Folktale group.

“I don’t have a background in textiles or anything,” noted Lee. “But I’ve never used fabric before and wanted to push myself and try it.”

Check back next week as we post the second round of contestant teams, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter (@accessoriesmag #ICEAwards2014) for more photos.